Today was the day I visited the Lutherans. Specifically Lutherans of the Missouri Synod which is the more conservative branch of the Lutheran Church in America...and it showed. The speakers and pastors were all men, though it did look like at least some women were in leadership positions though sadly not in leading the service type of ways.
The Church itself is connected to a school and the Chapel is beautiful. The colors today were black, rather than the White of Yesterday and the Red of Tuesday. The High Church or Churches connected to the High Church are good in regards to using the traditional colors to represent where and what should be felt during Holy Week. Black covered the empty cross, a smaller cross with a figurine of Jesus on it (which you generally don't see in Lutheran Churches), and the podium.
After I arrived the first hymn was sung...and they have an organ! This is one small detail I've loved about all the Lutheran churches I've attended. Organs are great at creating a good somber ambiance and are lovely when played.
It opened with variation on the Nicene Creed where the pastor said Christ did this, and congregation replied "To do this for us." With details relating to atonement and resurrection. After was the old Testament reading which was about Isaiah's prophecy of the coming Messiah and later the Epistle from Hebrews about Jesus being the Sacrifice and High Priest of the Christian Church before the final New Testament reading of Jesus's crucifixion with the two thieves.
After was the sermon about evil, which to be frank didn't really answer any questions about evil. God is good and destroys evil was the basic jist of it and Christ who is God came to do that as well. The problem was it was only spoken in generalities of sin and the Devil, both themes have historically been used to oppress...if it had been targeted at oppression or even hypocrisy than it would have made more sense...but given that Sodom and Gomorrah was brought up...well, no such luck. The problem was never truly addressed and in the end all I got from it that I didn't know from Christianity before was that it doesn't help on dealing with actual problems in the world, bringing up evil and the Devil I mean. I've only seen them used to hurt innocents like those with mental illness (saying their possessed by demons) and LGBTQ folks and attacking the people we love.
The part that was beautiful was after when the seven words were spoken and candles that had been lit at the beginning of the service were snuffed out as different quotes of Jesus's last day were read from the New Testament. One candle was left lit for Easter and a drum was pounded after it was lead out by one of the men in charge of the service.
It was good for reflection and I was invited back here for Easter. Don't know if I will be coming back or not...I hope to visit more Christendom...and maybe find another community like the Unitarians or Episcopals to get involved with. Regardless, it was a good Friday.
It's been a while since posting on the blog largely because I've been dealing with my reason for doing the blog in the first place (and reaffirming the initial reasons: the interactions with people, learning and discovery). I'm writing today about the shooting in Oak Hills, Wisconsin at the Sikh Gurdwara by a white supremacist.
The Sikh community is one of the kindest and welcoming communities I've ever known.
The reasons behind the shooting were fear and hatred of the Other. In this case Muslims, though I think for the guy the fact that the they weren't Muslims mattered very little. He was part of an organization that believed white supremacy, a philosophy based not only in fear and hatred of the other, but a belief that superiority exists in something as superficial as the color of ones skin.
One thing I think needs to be done is to approach this kind of terrorism the way we approach any other kind. There is a reason that there haven't been any successful terror attacks from radical Muslims, the same should apply to any other group that targets people because of their ethnicity and beliefs and believes that murder is right. The government should do monitoring and action before the evil occurs to prevent it in the first place.
This is not the only thing that should be done though, education is also key. People don't tend to fear what they understand. That's one thing where we as people as well as our education system can do better. How exactly, like my idea above should be done, I'm not sure. I think whatever is done should be based on whatever is most just and true.
The philosophy of any sort of supremacy of race is built on a lie. It falls when held up to the light of the truth. It's broken base cannot be supported and it crumbles. This is the importance of education, people who choose to be good can change when they (white supremacists, fundamentalists who believe in killing for their ideology) realize just how flawed and wrong the ideology is.
I shall end with a quote from the first Guru of Sikhism which is relevant on the actions we take:
"In the whole wide world that I see around, Nothing can be without good actions."
(Guru I, Japji)
May we remember the bad that is done in the world and create good.
What is the Problem of Evil in regards to the existence of God? The classic argument is: If God is all powerful and all good he would prevent all the evil in the world from occurring. From this premise God is then either: All powerful but not good or all good but not all powerful. This is the classic argument and that was the argument the Campus Minster Greg was answering with Christianity and the Bible as a response to the claim.
Before the Christian response was brought up, the establishment of there being Good in the world was established in the forms of love, beauty, and from what I gleaned virtues. Through the good and evil of humanity being recognize, I saw the full human experience given recognition.
The group who came was small. I was one of five people. There were Alex and Ariel who I have done Comparative Religion Contracts with Greg as my co-sponsor. I've enjoyed discussion with them. The other two people were Sandy from Beijing and another student whose name I can't remember.
After Greg had established the premise of the Problem of Evil in relation to God there was a break in which music was played by Alex. It was worship music I've heard at other Churches but felt more powerful since the group was so small. I noticed again how much worship songs sounds like love songs...replace God with someone's name and you have a romantic song being sung to someone you love, which is what worship is built upon, love.
After the music we read John 14 where Jesus tells his apostles he is going to the Father to set up a place for them in the Kingdom. He will always be with them through the Holy Spirit, which will be internal and inside of them. It's in this passage that there is "No one comes to the father except through me." This quote is actually one of the things I find limiting as far as the love not being unconditional and being limited. I'll get to that later though.
My friends discussed their experiences of feeling the Holy Spirit. Like in Church and during prayer and experiencing the peace that Jesus promises to give to his people in John 14. I could relate moments that I've had with family, friends or in different religious communities, like mosques, gurudwaras, synagogues and churches and especially when with girlfriend.
In the end the answer to the Thesis is that God chooses not to destroy Evil in the world because it is up to us to accept God and destroy the evil in ourselves so that we can reach Him and the Good at the end. He wouldn't be good if he took away choice. We experience trials and suffering in order to grow and become virtuous. In doing so, we are always striving for the good to become a part of it.
This could work to an extent, but it discounts those who live virtuously and those who never heard of Jesus during, before and after his existence. Which in the end make the choice existing in the first place not entirely good since other good individuals' goodness does not matter because they don't believe the exact definition of God that John 14 gets at, I find this not loving or fair since there are so many virtuous people of different faiths and virtuous atheists and agnostics.
Suffice to say the exploration of different people and leaders within Christianity's thoughts on this question will allow me to explore the different interpretations on this question more...and see if the dilemma of those who were never given a choice and the virtuous people aren't who aren't Christian is answered. There are other questions to, but this goes along with the exploration of the theme of "The Problem of Evil" in regards to Christianity.
I was grateful to make new friends and get to know old friends as well as getting to experience their faith with them.
I think I need to make something clearer. If I'm interviewing you I consider you important and personal to me, not a data point. This blog is meant to cover my own spiritual journey, discovery and experiences. Johnson and I had a mix-up during the discussion on this issue. But it is all okay now. This is for future reference for other people I discuss their faith with. The discussion is a shared experience of growth and I learn a lot from the people I talk too. You interviewees matter to me, just by being yourself and being present in the discourse that is conversation and growth. This blog is my spiritual journey shared with everyone else. You matter and are a part of it.
Today was the day I met up with Johnson. I am friends with his sister and see her as an adopted sibling and have met him once. But it had been years, today was the day we were able to meet and share out faith journeys and how we got to where we are today.
Johnson shared with me his parents' back story on how they became Christians and also the moving around he experienced in his life and how it brought about separateness and difficulty to form friendships. This reminded me of my Mom's experience, her being a Navy Brat who also lived in many locations as she grew up through childhood. From experiencing racism and Alabama (and not letting racism directed towards him, poison him) to Malaysia, to Texas and here in Washington. The experience of not letting bitterness entrench itself was something I could relate to myself. The Mormon Church taught me a lot, and helped me grow, and though I could never rejoin or become a member again. I'm grateful that it was a still a part of my life and growth.
We also talked about the importance of family, and at least for myself, however a family may be, if people can work out their issue with each other and reach peace, then there is a bit more hope for the world. How can communities and tribes get along if there is hatred between those connected through biologically and love?
He shared with me his personal relationship with Jesus and how in his difficult times the ways God has been there and helped him through.
One of the powerful moments is when Johnson read me 1 Corinthians 4-7. The passage is about the definition of love, and is one of the best definitions I have heard. "Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no records of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres." This is how I understand love, and hope I practice it always.
Generation Church was where he connected to God the most which was different from his Parent's Church. One of the miracles in his life was being able to move back to Seattle after being so far way from his Church community and family. He shared Psalm 18 with me, which is about a man defeating his enemies with God's help and how it had helped him through a difficult trial in his life, when it's personal meaning clicked.
I told Johnson about my vision experiences I've had during certain services. Which I'd never told anyone except my girlfriend and a few other friends and he called it a gift. I'd' never heard it called that before, and opening up about the visions helped me grow and better accept that part of myself, a part that I may never understand.
During the conversation we of course about Christianity, and I talked about one of the reasons I don't see myself, ever able to join Christianity. The issue is the problem of Evil. In the Bible God commits hanus acts against his own creations, from destroying entire civilizations, to allowing His people to do that to one another. Allowing the existence of Evil Incarnate (The Devil in Christianity) is also wrong. I'm unable to see how these acts and allowing evil in the world is any way loving, or makes sense when something is the perfect, personal Good.
It was a blessing to receive his perspective and to form a friendship in our shared experiences of being an outcast and faith exploration. We also both are very aware of how much we still have learn, and are students of life.
